FAQ & INTERVIEWS

KITTO  Feb 2007

PAST, PRESENT and FUTURE & SHOWING HER SENSITIVE SIDE OR

BLOWING DOWN THOSE BOUNDARIES

INTERVIEW: GRAEME SCOTT

As a broadcaster I hear a lot of new material some of which is very good, some not so bad and others that fail to impress. Just occasionally someone comes along who grabs your attention and drags you out of your complacency. It would be easy to slip into the area of hyperbole but sometimes it is unavoidable. It might be a cliché but in Kitto the potential for greatness is there in abundance. Kitto has an awesome Rock, Blues and Indie Grunge vocal delivery. A terrific new album, a mighty presence and all from a lovely gentle lady. Attempting to unravel this contradiction and unable to drag my eyes away we met across a livingroom floor…

GS: The UK tour has just started how has it been going?
Kitto: We began in Buckinghamshire with a kicking gig in High Wycombe and even fans came in from Sweden and France so it has been a great start.

Was that with a band or solo?
Oh no with a band, two guitars and drums but no bass.

Are you taking a swipe at 'Every Small Town' from "Over Sensitive" or are you just reflecting on life there and taking the big decision to leave that comfort zone?
Yes I think it happens to most people… they take a look around and say ok, I kind of have to leave here to discover it again. The things that push us away are the things we yearn for eventually, the grounding of our hometowns. The song was written on tour in a place called Devonport Tasmania wandering round after a gig, looking for a place to eat and there was nothing so the song was formulated from there.

When you were growing up were you aware of the compactness of Victoria?
Yes, now that was a small town, and I was dying to break out as I had a lot of dreams, I guess I was really looking to see what was out there in the world and to travel.

What was it like for you growing up and where did the music come from?
Probably previous ancestors because all my family are sports orientated. Apart from mum playing in the banjo club, I'm the only one who played music and I got my first guitar from santa when I was seven or eight, before that I was playing a soapbox with a hole in it and an elastic band. I was sent down to the pine trees to rehearse because my mum didn't want it too close to the house.

So even at a young age were you blessed with a set of pipes on you that got you banished to the pine trees?
Yes exactly, that was my freedom. My parent's records influenced me… Beatles, Tom Jones, Cilla Black and Shirley Bassey big singers and then I got into Zeppelin, Deep Purple and on to discover the whole grunge era and I went crazy for that.

You were talking off air about all the new material to be showcased so I wonder how much of this tour will be based on the album and how much will be new?
I sort of look at it as past, present and future which is kind of where all artists live…it's always moving, so you go back, check and then move forward again. "Over Sensitive" is totally appropriate for the times we are in and I don't think the album was thought out or designed to date. It will kind of sit there for maybe a year or two, but it will find its own place, and I am glad that we didn't record it with the kind of sounds that would date or its not written in a format that will date. Then I compare it with some early material that has been a stronghold for me when touring up till now then I keep thinking about the future because you must keep searching out moving forward. Then you can return to the present with these songs, which carry me and are my favourites, so I'm always happy to play them. The good thing about keeping moving around is that you don't get over familiar with them, you don't play them a thousand times and say I can never touch them again. I try very hard not to listen to my music before I go on stage because I don't want to know where I'm going; I want to be spontaneous.

As soon as track two, 'Faded Wallpaper' kicks in it is very clear that this album will be one to grab you attention. When you wrote these songs, and before you went into the studio, did you have a kind of sound in your head of what you were after?
It kind of developed itself starting out just sitting around in the studio testing out the songs to see how the structures work and seeing what went back to back. The producer Michael Blum took the decisions as to how it would sound. He didn't want to make it sound too Rock, Bluesy, Grungy or too acoustic. He wanted to colour it but not to over produce it and I think that is its saving grace, as it is now timeless.

How did you select your producer?
I'd met Michael about ten years ago after working unsuccessfully with Jeff Baxter and after doing BV's for another artist. Michael liked what I was doing and wanted to work with me. However it took all this time before he got me into the studio to work on the basic tracks. Pontus Andersson came on board and he is a young gun with new fresh ideas and different influences. He has great ears and didn't mix it just in the usual kind of way. We worked on it together and threw everything in there so it keeps you guessing all the time and sonically you were not in the one spot all the time and that is a great way to listen to music.

This is ballsy, attention grabbing Rock & Pop music and at times difficult to determine the gender of the vocalist.  You get drawn into the sound of the singer almost to the exclusion of the other audio and I wonder when performing solo do you hear the sound of the band in your head as you perform and how does it help you? 
Absolutely… I'm always playing to the big picture and the dynamics define the performance. I try to cover the whole emotional frequency spectrum and it is sometimes masculine and feminine but not in the sense of what gender you may be, it is about art and using the full range of sound and colour in performance. That is the thing that inspires me, to make you wonder. You hear a lot of guys with high voices, or operatic voices and then you get someone like Nina Simone and you really have to grasp the concept of her. It is not until you see someone that you get the whole three dimensions of it but usually you are forgiven for thinking it might be a guy but I'm here to make a call that I'm very feminine and to make a call for androgyny. You can re-write the rules and a lot of people have it, they just don't experiment with it.

It is a very effective tool.
People are quite afraid of it and especially the industry can't have this kind of headless snake… it's like where do we place this? They want to pigeonhole people and it has always been that way in pop art and culture and they need to have an identity there.

Do you see your music as more freeform in the way that it can be taken off in so many different directions both musically and as far as vocal delivery is concerned?
Yes I think so. Someone once said that she thinks in a jazz way but within rock music. I guess that it is more the impression of freeform rather than specifically the music other than the background of where Blues and jazz have come from. I think it is more in the thinking and rock has a lot of looseness to it…it's the gaps that really rock. The space is everything as I've seen so many people fired from bands because they are really timekeepers instead of tuning in and using their ears. It's a funny industry as to what the criteria are that makes a performance.

Apart from the obvious things I wonder is there any differences in the way you approach solo gigs from one with a band?
I just concentrate on giving the overall sound the impression of playing with a band. I can do lots of little things on the guitar like some of the drum fills, or play the bass bit because it can do the whole lot. However with the band I just kind of strum along and do what I do. I back off a bit and let them do their parts; it's quite a simple process.

Are you happier in the creative process or in performance?
Ah, fifty fifty. They say there is nothing quite like a new idea and I get those all the time in everything. I get so nervous before going on stage knowing that I'm going to be thrust out into the spotlight. I don't like to get too familiar and the nerves make sure I am definitely in a humble place. If I do get too familiar then the song is almost over; there is nothing… no feeling coming. If I do get tired, which does happen, it's like any relationship when you have to work a little bit harder at this. It's all about knowing why you perform and playing to the unknown element, letting the rest play itself out rather than judge the performance. I'm definitely one of those self-critical people and I really care that I did the correct thing in the song. If the song is delivered well then I've done my job in terms of communication. I get very hard on myself if it has not delivered well in terms of message or how it makes people feel. I try to tune into the audience to feel what they are getting from a song and performance. I'm learning all the time.

Take me through your creative process, first melody or lyrics?
I think melody is easiest and always finds me. I tend to live parallel to the lyrics in terms of where they come from. I co-write as well so I always have those lyrics side lining for a situation. When a melody comes up I don't resist the feelings that I have inside and I know the lyric that will fit whether it be melancholy, upbeat or fun and humorous. It's just one of those amazing things where you can put words, where you're finding the shape and sound of the word, to the melody.

How close is the relationship between writing a lyric to a piece of poetry?
I think poetry is the highest order where it might not be edited so much as you can get the full depth of the message you want to convey in the prose. In lyrics you have to economise sometimes to fit the structure of the songs and you are abbreviating here and there. You still try to keep the essence of the poetry in the song. I've done it quite a few times where it has been possible to keep the two forms of writing separate so that people can reference when they go to the poetry ah this is the long version. People like this too because there is stuff that is important there that maybe doesn't fit in the song. Maybe its is too intellectual or too descriptive to put into the song unless you're Bob Dylan. The trick with any writing is always to be on standby. It's a subconscious thing but you have to work hard when you get the ideas to piece them all together. The key is not to be put out when the idea comes at four o'clock in the morning. It becomes a pleasure, when you really love the thing you do; it's not a chore anymore. It gives you energy, so the creative process is not a stressful one for me at all. I think you get more stress when you try to control it or you have to formulate it to contain or tame a song in its structure. There are some songs that shouldn't be that way they should be ten minutes long, but I'm not sure the audience would hang around that long.

You mentioned co-writing, and some of these songs were done with several writers, McDonald, Gale, McMillan, how easy is it to merge those ideas? Do you find it hard to say no, on this occasion, this is not fitting in with my thoughts?
It comes back to trust and respected respective roles. When someone hands me a lyric from that point they trust how I will process it to put it into performance because they already know the kind of performer I am. So I'm fortunate that I am trusted with the emotional interpretation of the content of the song. However it is only my interpretation. They could take it to someone else and have a completely different experience with it. I don't think any of us can be too possessive about it or too protective with a lyric. We have to trust that when we hand it to anybody you have to let it go to keep it. Because no one's ever going interpret the lyric exactly like you and when it goes out to the world everyone will interpret it so I just transfer it, I just put it all together and then deliver it signed and sealed. So in that sense I work with people that are very trusting and I trust them.

You also trusted your producers in the studio but I wonder how much you retained control over the song?
Well I had done my homework before we went in there and presented it in terms of the structure. You've got to make sure you know what you want to say, or as close to it as possible. That way you don't feel bad if they start to make edits to the song because you've already established everything you have to say within the song. When they take it and say let's trim it up here or take this part out here because it's too long I can agree with that because you get another view point which can only support the song even more in interpretation. So it gets refined and refined which is a good process. Again it's trust, which is the great thing in music. I never hesitate on that; I'm very instinctive in going with the first or best ideas.

With the benefit of hindsight can you revisit a lyric that is say ten years old, connect with it as it was in those days, re-interpret it or do you never look back?
I do go back to the ones that are quite sustaining and were not just a passing phase, cause you always get the ones that prop you to the next level and then you let them go. There are some of those that you think well that was really for the wastebasket but it was fun for a while. I hold on to all the lyrics, just some I play, like the cornerstones, because they are the ones that sustain and the folk give me feedback on.

You are very much a working musician, gigging all the time, but I am curious how you made the move to Sweden, which is not perhaps the most obvious place for a rock singer? What have you learned about yourself and music through being there?
I got a tip off to go to Sweden and ended up getting a national TV gig and then played a couple of shows in Stockholm. Sweden kind of found me so to speak. It was quite a culture shock from being a free spirited Aussie to being around people much more reserved. They are very kind but a bit distant and therefore I grew very close to my music very quickly as a form of comfort, because I felt quite alone in the travelling process and I used my music as a standby companion and a way to make friends.

What do you mean by that expression?
Well it's just been there for every emotion and circumstance I have had. I always knew that I could feel a little bit better if I just pick up the guitar and put myself into the song. The song created a centre again and that is what I used it for because singing music and performing is a way of life for me. It is not just a means of making a living so to speak and I've made so many friends. It's allowed me to play everywhere from hospitals, schools and streets plus all the way to the North Pole. So that is what I mean, and today coming into Edinburgh and I'm seeing all these beautiful buildings I'm thinking this is amazing that my music that has brought me here. What more could you want?

What kind of influence did Sweden's music have on you?
Well it's just such a pop culture normally up there and everything was sing-along and jolly. I'm rather melancholy so I guess more their underground scene got to me. I like their ideas and some of the depth with experimenting that some of the hardcore bands play. So I found these influences more interesting rather than just the songs that say have a nice day.  I want to know what more there is to the day. But I've also had some serious bouts of home- sickness over there.

Is that the down side to spending your life on the road?
You miss all the small things but it teaches you how to appreciate home, and the small things, so you incorporate them into your life when you can. The things that others take for granted you're really glad about. Meeting your friends and seeing their kids pictures, or parties where you can eat toffees and all that kind of stuff. I just love all that stuff and celebrating with them.

You've never grown up have you?
Ha ha, no you're right. But it helps with the homesickness. I'm one who will cram all the familiar things into my suitcase when I leave Australia taking cookies, Vegemite and Milo energy drink and I put it all in there. Because I think we all want nurturing and I find, that for myself, if it is in the cupboard then it feels like a little bit of home is there with me.

Apart from the current round of touring what does the future hold for you?
Well I have a lot of new material so obviously we will head back into the studio at some point this year . There will be yet more shows, some of which will probably be with a band because I love the ferociousness that comes with that.

The last time you were in the UK it was fronting Janis Joplin's old band Big Brother And The Holding Company, how did that gig come about?
It was another chance offer from an agent here and I thought that it was a great opportunity because I've never sung in front of a band like that before and without a guitar for a start.

Did you feel naked without one?
I just swung the microphone stand around to make up for it. I had studied the old videos and went basically to San Francisco for the audition and sang my heart out. Got the chance to play Bobby McGee on Janis's original Bluebird Gibson guitar and Sam Andrew said I had the job and they would see me later in the year.

Janis was another gutsy, rock and blues singer, how easy was it for you to slip into that role and even put your own interpretation on the songs?
Within certain constraints I could sing them in my way because Janis sang in falsetto and I am a full octave lower as well so we were very different. Many vocalists who have tried to copy her failed because she had such a unique way. She threw her voice around and served it up to everyone via her emotion. I think there is probably more to what I can relate to in the emotion department rather than the vocal. So I didn't ask them to change any of the keys because I don't believe in that as I think the key itself holds a certain emotion. So I don't like the idea of key changes to make it sweeter, happier or darker. I just adjusted the vocal and for instance in Summertime I started lower and worked my way up right to the last minute. I found the process quite difficult vocally to hold out on some of those songs. I'll be honest with you, because I'm quite a bit deeper so instead I kind of pushed sideways with the songs and worked to put the energy in there. For example on Piece Of My Heart, everybody's got their own way of doing it, and I just used my whole body into that vocal and because I didn't have the guitar I was quite freed up. Some people like that kind of delivery and I've played Bobby McGee in my own sets for quite a while as folk requested it. However as I said before it’s the energy levels rather than the vocal style that gives the performance an edge. You've just got to trust your own instinct with a song as to where you can take it.

Can you see yourself carrying on touring way on into the future?
Some of us, at least for myself, when you realise your dream, when you're doing what your dream is you can only go from there. I mean it depends on what you want out of it and I think you have to get to a point, and a beautiful Scottish lady said this to me once "you have to reach contentment". When you get to the point of contentment, you're there, then it doesn't matter, everything else becomes just fantastic. You're always going to have the highs and the lows. Everything is proportionate whether it's financially or success wise.

So would you say you are content musically now?
Musically yes.

How long did it take to get to that point?
Oh wow, probably most of my life. I've only reached that point, maybe in the last couple of years I think. I can't really explain what happens but I think you just realise. Something mirrors it back to you one day, where you think wow this is realised. It might be just driving along in the car and put your CD on and you listen to it. Or you could be anywhere and you hear a song and it reflects your life's work. They say your life is one long song and all of a sudden you hear your song for the first time and you understand the past, present and the future and just why you do it. Bob Dylan said once in Rolling Stone that he had the capacity to go on forever until there is nothing left to say or be sung. He said in A Hard Rains Gonna Fall that "I know my song well before I start singing". It's like wow when you reach that point and it's amazing to find where your destiny is going and then everything is just so great that you respect all the little things, all the great things and there is a humility that comes with that I think.

When you stand on stage, having given a hundred percent of yourself, and see an audience of all ages reacting to your music it must give you a terrific buzz and one that is full of contentment. Kitto thanks for taking the time out to talk with me tonight, good luck and we will catch you next time.
Yes it does. Thank you very much and I am really glad we did this.

It is clear that Kitto is a complex, sensitive and at times intense character, however she was a pleasure to meet and easy to chat with. During the course of this interview Kitto performed four songs Death Of Yesterday, Idiot, Victoria Station and Faded Wallpaper. Songs that covered her past, her present and her future. All simply stunning and delivered with more balls than many well-known male singers.  Have no doubt though, she is a very attractive lady and when she sings you just can't turn away. Charismatic is the only word to describe her. If this lady, with her powerful take on Rock and the Blues, does not have by the end of 2007 a big profile here in the UK then there will be no justice.

Rockus.com.au

Kitto, one of Australia's most publically underrated artists, is back with a new album, further showcasing the diversity and musical strength which has brought her much appreciation and underground success over the course of her 10+ year career.

Rockus: How have you been of late?
Kitto: I’m great! Ever inspired. That may sound rather "Shie Shie" aka too optimistic, but I’ve witnessed so much awesome stuff in recent days around the globe, so I hope I know what’s important and load it into a gig.

R: Your whole life has been based around song writing and music in general. Looking back on all the years you’ve spent involved in the art form, do you have many regrets and what have been your major highlights?
K: I don’t have many regrets as much as just making corrections along the way. Probably would have got mega famous if I’d play the game a bit more, however I am into political correctness so was checking out the corners and fine print too much sometimes, I suppose. For example Metallica came to two of my concerts and gave me free passes, backstage, the works and a biz card to Q Prime, their management agency in NY... Bugger I didn’t follow it up. I still kick myself there.

Major Highlights... played in front of 12,000 in The Globe in Stockholm, performing with Chad Smith (Red Hot Chilli Peppers drummer) in a concert in LA and seeing it lit up on the billboard in the streets, performed at Midtfyn in Denmark - like Roskilde - 60,000+ with just an acoustic guitar, teddy bear and a bottle of wine which I drank earlier waiting in the trailer with the photographer, meeting my idols in US and on tour in Europe. Busking on the street in London’s Portobello Rd and having Lenny Kravitz walk past. Played in Monaco at Café Replay for Princess Stephanie, going to the North Pole, first Australian artist to ever perform in Belarus and Russia last year 2003.

R: Of all the places you've travelled to around the world, which have you found to be the most musically and culturally inspiring?
K: Spain for one - these guys know how to live and when to quit bitchin’. France cause it’s great food & music appreciation across the spectrum and they love Aussies! USA for the cool influences... the good ones.

R: It’s been two years since the release of your last album. How much do you feel you've learnt and grown? musically, in that time?
K: I feel free with this album like I’ve finally learned to grab the ball and run with nothing holding back. It helped loads that I was confidently overseen by the co-producers (Destner/Molin) of P-Junk to get a performance which really reflects what happens live. That includes playing wise and dropping expectations of what people think! It’s honest, there is no judgement and feels like a homogenised album and people can hear that. I can let it speak for itself... gGets better with every listen and that was an objective.

R: You seem to be one of those artists that is constantly motivated and constantly writing new material. Have there been times throughout your career where writers block as been a problem and, if so, how have you worked through it?
K: No not really. It’s all in the timing. There is so much information on standby so I never run out. I think if you say or write down/record there and then what you observe or think, you never miss and so when the down-times on, it balances out. For me it’s living on standby, in “the zone”.

R: I’ve read that you feel that your versatility has burdened you / hindered you throughout your career from being more known then you are. Have you tried to keep a bit more continuity / common backbone with the songs on your new record or are you still just as diverse as ever?
K: You hit it! The most important thing this time which I’ve really tried to communicate on this album, is to not compromise the spectrum of subject matter and yet keep the musicality of it more simplified and with identifiable edge. I work with only/limited to five sounds with guitar on stage in a rock trio, so there isn’t much more than bass and drums going on. Therefore it’s massive freedom if you can handle the space and not have it filling up with clever insecure stuff.

R: How would you compare the material on your new record, 'Precious Junk', with that from your last album?
K:It’s my own vision from start to finish. I love the previous record 'Princess of Tragedy’ (Bryant/Molin) which was more of a singer-songwriter concept album, a vision/interpretation produced by a great team of guys. However it’s just progressively moved forward to get a little more out there, usually the opposite happens hey.

R: Are you happy with where your life is at and where you are at musically at the present time?
K: I’m totally happy with the whole new music movement at the moment; where freedom stands artistically with artists. A song writing colleague and I just finished a song called ‘Emotional Minute’. It’s not exactly happy but got a serious tongue in cheek hook factor. We rule!

R: What goals are yet to be fulfilled for Kitto?
K:I got a 2 year plan mapped out... and loads of paper on standby.

Delirra 5 minute interview with Kitto

Delirra – In your bio you say that your favourite place on earth is Nightcliff beach. What about the sandflies, crocs, box jellyfish, sharks, mosquitoes, blinding heat and suffocating humidity?
Kitto – You forgot flys!…. I do keep a distance and admire the rugged beauty. However before every concert or plane trip, I would make a pilgrimage out there to psyche up or write a set list. Nightcliff beach has some awesome energy!

Delirra – What the hell sort of name is “Kitto”?
Kitto – It originates from Cornwall UK, not to be confused with a Japanese Celt! And it’s my last name - artist name.

Delirra – You have recently returned from Sweden. What is with this music connection Australia and Sweden seem to have?
Kitto – A balancing act. Truth is I spend 6 months of the year in each place. Stockholm is my base for working and recording in Europe and Australia is the holiday (or feels like it). Both countries have been good to me for opportunities professionally as a writer.

Delirra – Having only listened to your latest single I Wonder Why, my obsessively categorising mind thought “pop rock”. Is this how you would describe your music?
Kitto – The music overall is kind of female Cobain-esque sound with more depth and obscurity. So I wonder why was made as a 3-minute pop breather basically to keep heads above water and to reach people who generally wouldn’t be exposed to the kind of stuff I write.

Delirra – For the uninitiated, is the life of an indie muso one of sleeping on lounge room floors, long bus trips, relentless self promotion and scrounging favours - or is that picture a little rosy?
Kitto – No, it’s even worse!

Delirra – How do you feel about Australia’s involvement in the war in Iraq, and how are Australia’s actions perceived in Sweden?
Kitto – After getting bailed up in a Scandinavian hotel lobby at 4 am after a gig, questioned over the Tampa incident, I’m not prepared to go there.